Radhanath Swami tells us the way from imaginary realizations to real realizations

“The personification of Krishna’s grace is Sri Radha and that grace manifests in our lives in so many ways if we are receptive.” – Radhanath Swami

And Lord Chaitanya, who took the role of a devotee, taught us in a practical way how to live the Srimad Bhagavatam. We read about Dhruva, Prahlad, Pandavas; we read about the residents of Vrindavan, the gopis and the gopas. Now, how to apply those principles in our lives?

radha bhaava dyuti suvalitam naumi krishna svarupam

Krishna came with the love of Sri Radha in his heart, and (with) her complexion as well. And he came in a role of a devotee to teach us how to actually live following in the footsteps of the residence of Vrindavan in our very lives. At the ratha yatra in Puri, before revealing to the world these inner secrets, he folded his palms before jagannath and offered several prayers. Among them,

naham vipro nacanara-patir napi vaisyo na sudro

naham varninacagriha-patir no vanastho yatir va

kintuprodyannikhilaparamananda

gopibhartuhpada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah

“I am not a Brahmana, nor a Kshatriya, nor a vaishya, nor a shudra. I am not a brahmachari, nor a sannyasi, nor a grihastha, or nor a vanaprastha. My aspiration, my identity, my true identity is,

gopi–bhartuhpada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah.

I am the servant of the servants of the servants of your servants, my Lord, the Lord of the gopis. Now, this is the principle which is the basic foundation of all true realizations of bhakti. There is imaginary realization: we can understand the truth philosophically, we can know what achintya abheda bheda tattva is, we can know what jiva tattva is, what bhakti tattva is, what Krishna tattva is, what Radha tattva is, what Rasa tattva is, what these inner truths are. But to understand any of them, our realizations have to be built on this foundation, the foundation of gopi bhartur pada kamalayor das, das, dasanudas – feeling oneself the servant of the servants of the servants; not feeling oneself qualified, but feeling oneself unqualified, because when we feel ourselves unqualified, then we are able to, from the heart, call out for Krishna’s grace. The personification of Krishna’s grace is Sri Radha and that grace manifests in our lives in so many ways if we are receptive.

About Radhanath Swami

The ‘Radhanath Swami Explosion’–the exponential growth in the popularity of Radhanath Swami–might be a recent phenomena, but the origin of this ‘Big Bang’ go back to 1971.
But Radhanath Swami was little known until 1986 when he returned to India after spending a couple of years in an austere monastery in North America. It was then that the Radhanath Swami that we now know began to emerge in the eyes of the world... Read More